“Son.” His response was just as flat.

“What are you doing here?”

Jonas Fuller’s expression hardened. “Kerrie told me what’s going on.”

Confused, Marcus arched a brow. “What is it, exactly, that’s going on?”

“You’re forsaking your mate. Yes, Kerrie told me all about her vision, all about this female you’ve been dating. Even though you know how much your mate needs you, you’re forsaking her. How could you? From what Kerrie’s told me, she’s like your mother. She needs someone to take care of her, to save her, she needs her mate—”

“And you need someone who depends on you, don’t you?” That stopped his father mid-rant. “It didn’t occur to me at first. I always felt bad for you, figured you were trapped, that you stood by Mom because she was your mate. But it wasn’t that at all, was it?”

His father lifted his chin, but he said nothing.

“You need someone who can’t take care of themselves. It makes you feel good to be so indispensable to someone, doesn’t it? Makes you feel good to take care of someone so broken, to have someone whose happiness depends totally on you—even to the point where you would happily enable a sickening addiction.”

“We’re talking about you,” said Jonas. “About your mate and your future.”

The passenger door of his father’s car opened, and Kerrie exited. This wasn’t going to go well.

“Marcus, please don’t be mad at me for going to your dad. I needed to do something. I needed to make sure you didn’t ruin your life.” She moved toward him, but his growl stopped her short.

“How would I have ruined my life?”

“By getting serious with that Roni girl,” replied Kerrie. “She’s not the one for you.”

“Says who?”

“My vision.”

“I don’t place much faith in visions,” he said, repeating something Roni had once said. “Not anymore.”

Kerrie’s nostrils flared. “Has she convinced you not to listen to me? To ignore what I told you?” Marcus looked at her blankly. “She’s turned you against me, hasn’t she?”

“Don’t do something stupid, Marcus,” barked Jonas. “To forsake your mate would be the height of stupidity. You’ll spend your life wondering what could have been. You’ll abandon someone who needs you.”

The sound of a car door slamming shut had his father and Kerrie looking at the Toyota. Marcus could feel Roni’s annoyance. Not only that, he could feel her wolf’s annoyance.

Roni came to stand at his side. “Everything all right, Marcus?”

“That’s her, Jonas!” exclaimed Kerrie, pointing. “That’s the one who won’t clear the path for his mate!”

Jonas sneered at Roni. “So not only are you willing to forsake your own mate, you’re willing to make Marcus forsake his?”

She cocked her head. “I could almost believe you care.”

He reared back. “Of course I care! He’s my son!”

“You care? Really? So what did you do when his mother rejected him and pushed him away? What did you do to make him feel safe and happy at home? Oh, yeah, nothing.”

Marcus watched as his father clenched his fists. The old man had never liked being questioned or criticized.

“He didn’t have a real mother—she was a selfish child who only saw her own needs,” continued Roni. “Did you give him affection and the assurance that he was loved to make up for that? No, you were hard with him. You forced him to lie for her and for you; you made him feel alone. He grew up feeling guilty because he couldn’t save her, couldn’t make her happy.”

Jonas growled. “That’s not—”

“Together, you both made him believe he wasn’t loveable, worthy, or accepted—that he wasn’t important to either of you. In doing that, you made him live a life where he didn’t give enough of himself to let people see the real him, because to do that would be to give them a chance to reject him. Instead, he rejected them first. So you tell me how, exactly, you ‘care,’ because I just can’t see it.”

Marcus curled his arm around her, and whispered in her ear, “Shh, it’s okay, sweetheart.” Hearing her defend him like that put a lump in his throat.

“Marcus, you can’t possibly want her!” whined Kerrie. “She’s plain and boyish and foulmouthed and selfish!”

Roni waved a hand, finding the woman nothing but pitiful at that moment. “Really, Kerrie, there’s no need to put me on a pedestal.”

The Seer actually stamped her foot. “If you really cared about him, you wouldn’t ruin his life this way.”

“It both astonishes and irritates me that you think your opinion matters.”

“There, son,” began Jonas, “she doesn’t even care enough to stand aside for your mate!”

“She is my mate.” He looked at Kerrie then. “But you know that, don’t you? You had a vision of me with Roni. You lied in the hope that I wouldn’t recognize her.”

“No!” Kerrie shook her head madly. “Marcus, I would never do something like that. You have to believe me.”

“I don’t believe you. Roni and I have mated—it’s done.”

“You’re true mates?” said Jonas, losing his bluster.

“Yes. And it wasn’t until I mated with Roni that I realized something—joining with your mate makes you whole. They suit you on every level, make everything right and balanced. So Mom had to suit you then, didn’t she? In a sense, you’re just the same as her—you want to suffer. It’s the whole martyr complex, isn’t it?” Jonas said nothing. Kerrie, on the other hand . . .

“You can’t possibly believe she’s your true mate! She tricked you or something, she—”

Roni growled. “Kerrie, you need to shut the fuck up or I will make you.” The female gulped.

“Are you done?” Marcus asked his dad.

Jonas straightened his shoulders, his expression softening. “So . . . you’re happy?”

“I am. Roni makes me happy. But you sure never cared if I was happy before, so why now?”

“He wants something,” Roni suspected.